(Nanowerk News) Agilent Technologies Inc. today announced it has acquired Particle Sizing Systems, a privately held company that designs and manufactures instruments that measure the particle size and stability in materials ranging from soft drinks to inkjet inks to semiconductor polishing slurries. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition expands Agilent’s growing portfolio of particle analysis solutions and directly addresses customer needs in small nanoparticles and large particle agglomerates.

“With the growth of products based on nanomaterials – from medicines to diesel fuel catalysts – understanding the size of these particles is increasingly important both for the manufacturer to control product performance and stability, and to understand the impact of these new materials on the environment,” said Mike Gasparian, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s Materials Science Solutions Unit. “Agilent now offers customers instruments that measure a large spectrum of particles.”

Particle Sizing Systems designs and manufactures instruments that provide the highest-accuracy particle size measurements using industry-standard laser light scattering technology. Proprietary algorithms and patents provide superior characterization of the entire particle size distribution with the ability to measure both large and small particles in the dispersion. Industries needing such measurements include pharmaceuticals, inks/pigments, CMP slurries, polymers, food and cosmetics.

Most of the 37 Particle Sizing Systems employees will join Agilent.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) is the world’s premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company’s 19,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $5.4 billion in fiscal 2007. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.